FDPPI conducted its first informal meeting in physical space yesterday the 29th September in Bangalore. For the general information of all, we are posting this information here.
The essence of the discussions yesterday was a re-iteration of the objectives of the group and charting a broad scope for the future activities of the Company. The key points to be noted are as follows.
- The objectives of the group is to empower the community of Data Protection Professionals with knowledge, skill and an ethical attitude.
- The community by definition would include all those professionals who have a stake in “Data Protection”.
- An “Ethical Declaration” or a draft “Code of Conduct” document would be developed for adoption by the members.
- The Company being a Section 8 company, would be reinvesting all its earnings back into its operations and not distribute it to the members by way of dividend.
- The Company being a company where the member’s liabilities are limited by guarantee, will not have share capital and members are not required to contribute to the share capital. Alternatively they have to provide a guarantee as required under Companies Act 2013 and we have fixed the guarantee amount under the Articles to be Rs 10000/-. Hence the membership application form will contain a clause indicating this obligation. The membership is however limited to “Donors” who contribute to a minimum of Rs 5000/-
- All donors who contribute Rs 5000/- and above as donation would be given an option to become a member and the application would be approved by the Board subject to any further criteria in this regard prescribed by the Articles and once approved, they would become “Members” with voting rights.
- From among the members, a few would be elected as members of the Governing Council with a segmentation of such regional councils in different geographical locations. Since the members have started enrolling in Bangalore now, we will shortly constitute the “FDPPI Governing Council of Bengaluru”.
- A “Members only” part of this website would provide more information on the list of members etc., in due course.
- Some of the members have opted to take up the position as “Supporting Donors”. They have agreed to execute some of their professional projects ( at their option and subject to mutual discussion and approval) by sharing their professional expertise in execution of the project under the joint name of FDPPI and such a Supporting donor. The credentials of such supporting donors and their skills will be separately show cased on this site in due course and they will represent the “Collective Professional Capabilities of FDPPI” which would be on offer to the community.
- In identifying the future activities, it was discussed that FDPPI should go beyond conducting of workshops and seminars with further value added services to the community such as
a) Certification of the Data Protection Professionals under the criteria to be developed by FDPPI… particularly incorporating the need for knowledge on Indian Privacy and Data Protection Requirements as an extension of other Certification programs that may be available in the market.
b) Conducting workshops and training programs for Corporate employees as well as professionals who aspire for Certification of other organisations.
c) The FDPPI Certifications may co-exist with other Internationally recognized Certifications and provide the focus on the Indian requirements. As and when the Indian Data Protection Authority comes into being, based on any norms that may be prescribed by them, attempt will be made to gain an additional level of recognition.
d) FDPPI will develop Codes for implementation of Data Protection Norms for conducting Data Audits of different types envisaged in the draft PDPA 2018. FDPPI will also develop a system for evaluation and representation of “Trust Scores” for implementation of Data Protection by organizations.
e) An attempt will be made to get the standards developed by FDPPI acceptable under the norms of the other established industry standards taking care that no restrictions on its use would be accepted under IPR considerations.
f) FDPPI would try to identify and develop other value added services that the community may require as a part of the development of Data Protection legislation in India.
Considering the recent developments in the Country it was decided that we need to address the issue of the adverse impact of the Aadhaar Judgement on the industry and also form specific recommendations that can be sent to the Ministry of Information Technology on the draft PDPA 2018 for which the public comments will be received upto 10th of October 2018.
P.S: The meeting of 29th does not constitute a formal meeting of the members of the Company or its Governing Council or the Board. It is like a “Round Table” of stake holders. The proceedings would therefore not go into the minutes book of the Company under the Company’s Act.
Members who were present in the meeting may suggest modifications to the above if required.
I thank those who have already sent their donations through online/cheque and applications for membership. Others can download the application form containing details of membership and send in their applications.
Naavi
